I noticed a few days ago when my wee zinnia seedlings started coming up that something was nibbling at them.  By yesterday the nibbling had turned to gnawing, and whole stands of seedlings had been reduced to wrecked stems...


You know, I'm not uptight about a little nibble here and there, but some insects are so greedy.   I think these are mites (as opposed to aphids) and I've started some new seedlings in peat pots elsewhere in the garden to be transplanted when they've grown stronger.  But my fear is that the mites will move on to whatever's next once they've gobbled up these zinnias, or that they'll come back and gobble up the new zinnias, too.  So tomorrow I'll get some insecticidal soap and come at it from that angle.

We have been fighting the squirrels at the orphanage, too.  With some success, I might add.  I have dealt with rabbits back in Indiana, and deer and crows when I was at the orchard in New Hampshire, and once they become pests the party's over.  Even Beatrix Potter was no fool for the rodents she wrote about — the ones who behave badly are sent off to their rooms without bread and milk and blackberries for supper (like Peter Rabbit), or end up maimed (like Squirrel Nutkin).


The orphan upstairs was attacked by the squirrels who made their home under the roof of my big bay window the other day. They targeted his own seedlings in peat pots and his camera bag.  They got in through the window, which was left open without a screen on it, but he believes it was a planned and coordinated assault.  And I don't doubt it.  Squirrels are temperamental little creatures, nervous and very selfish, but they're also vindictive and capable of coordinated assaults.

He had tolerated them all winter — we both had — and this is how they showed their appreciation?  By trashing his room like they were rock stars?  So the first thing he did was douse their nest with salt and cayenne pepper, and then sealed off entrances and exits with chicken wire.  And then he trimmed all the low-hanging limbs from the trees all around.  See, you can be as PETA as you want to be, until it gets personal.

Not a peep from them since, by the way. 

I'll beat these bugs the same way.  It could get ugly, but, hey, nobody said Paradise was gonna be pretty.